Cedars Upper School is an upper school and sixth form with academy status, located in

Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard ( ) is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills. It is northwes ...

, Bedfordshire, England. Former students of the school are known as Old Cedarians.

History

Following the Fisher Education Act in 1918, education became compulsory up to the age of 14 by state funded schools. Being an easier option most children stayed at their primary school until aged 14. The Cedars school was founded as a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

for boys and girls in 1921 in Church Square,

in a house formerly occupied by Mary Norton. The

Bedfordshire Times The ''Times & Citizen'' is a free local newspaper published on Thursdays in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. The newspaper is distributed all over the Borough of Bedford and much of Mid Bedfordshire. Current circulation is around 31,000. History ...

reported "''The Cedars School, which has been founded by the Bedfordshire Education Authority, in conjunction with the neighbouring county of Buckingham, to meet the long-felt needs of Leighton Buzzard, Linslade and the surrounding district for secondary education, was formally opened on Thursday by the High Sheriff of Bedfordshire, Mr.R.W.Allen C.B.E''." The first headmaster was F Fairbrother. (1886-1959) He was a keen rose grower and in retirement became president of the Royal National Rose Society from 1959-60. Acceptance of a pupil to attend the school followed an entrance exam taken at age 11. The brighter children could win a scholarship who were exempt from payment. This divided the school into A and B sides. The scholarship children were put in the A side and those that didn’t get a scholarship but passed the entrance exam in the B side. Prior to the Certificate of Education being introduced in 1951 students wishing to go to University passed matriculation examination to

matriculate Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used no ...

Grammar School

Following the

Education Act 1944 The Education Act 1944 (7 and 8 Geo 6 c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the "Butler Act" after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Historians ...

The Cedars became a grammar school which split secondary education into two tiers. At age eleven pupils finishing their primary education were required to sit the

eleven plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...

. The top 25% went to grammar schools and were taught an academic curriculum intended to prepare them to study academic qualifications at university. The remainder of pupils went to secondary modern schools and were taught a more skills based curriculum intended to fit them for work.

Comprehensive

The Bedfordshire Times states "''In 1968 the Secretary of State approved a comprehensive reorganisation of schools In 1973 the school became a

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

. This prompted the school to be re-organised by the

Local Education Authority Local education authorities (LEAs) were local councils in England that are responsible for education within their jurisdiction. The term was used to identify which council (district or county) is locally responsible for education in a system wit ...

, Bedfordshire County Council. This did away with selection, all pupils attending similar schools, teaching the same curriculum, based solely on age. Children aged 5 to 9 attended lower schools, those aged 9 to 13 went to a middle school and those aged 13 to 18 attended an upper school. The council affirmed its support for the scheme in 1969 and again in 1970 and in 1974 the reorganisation reached the Leighton Buzzard area. The Cedars, therefore, became an Upper School but, as the Church Square premises were too small, moved to new purpose built buildings on the old Cedars playing fields in Linslade in 1973. The old Cedars premises became Leighton Middle School. and moved to its current location on Mentmore Road. Leighton Middle School was founded at the former location''." The school became a specialist

Mathematics and Computing College Mathematics and Computing Colleges were introduced in England in 2002 and Northern Ireland in 2006 as part of the Government's Specialist Schools programme which was designed to raise standards in secondary education. Specialist schools foc ...

in September 2006, and due to the specialism, the school also became a Microsoft Sponsored School. The school then converted to academy status in September 2011. Since September 2018 the school has become a component of the multi-academy Chiltern Learning Trust. In April 2019 it was announced that French and German A Levels would be cut "due to limited uptake, making them “nonviable”.

Houses

In 2010, the school changed to a vertical tutoring system, having five houses named after rivers;

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

, Lena, Danube, Zambezi and Murray, though the Murray house was removed in September 2016. In September 2019, the vertical tutoring system was removed and replaced with horizontal tutoring, with the houses being replaced by the year groups and upper and lower sixth being combined. The former houses were named after the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales; George, Andrew, Patrick and David

Awards

*David Heather, 2006, The Guardian regional award for "Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School.

Alumni

* Ronald Hugh Barker (PhD, BSc(hons), FIET, FInstP ), Physicist and Inventor of Barker code, used for the efficient transmission of data, e.g. radar, space telemetry, digital speech, mobile phone, gps, ultrasound and tracking technologies, etc. *

Helen Boaden Helen Boaden (born 1 March 1956) is a British former broadcasting executive who spent more than 30 years working for the BBC, including as Director of Radio between February 2013 and September 2016.Tom Harpe"BBC news head Helen Boaden moved to ...

, Director of BBC Radio since 2013, Director from 2004-13 of BBC News, Controller from 2000-04 of BBC Radio 4 (also attended school in Ipswich) * Oliver Duff (British editor), Editor since 2013 of the

i (newspaper) The ''i'' is a British national morning paper published in London by Daily Mail and General Trust and distributed across the United Kingdom. It is aimed at "readers and lapsed readers" of all ages and commuters with limited time, and was origi ...

. * John Gadd CBE, Chairman from 1973-77 of the Eastern Gas Board, and from 1977-88 of the North Thames Gas Board * Jane Griffiths (politician), Labour MP from 1997-2005 of

Reading East Reading East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Matt Rodda, of the Labour Party. The seat is one of two won (held or gained) by a Labour candidate in 2017 from a total of eight covering ...

* Julie Hilling, Labour MP from 2010-15 of Bolton West * Derek Reid,

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

* Martin Shirley CBE FRSB, Director from 2006-10 of the

Institute for Animal Health The Pirbright Institute (formerly the Institute for Animal Health) is a research institute in Surrey, England, dedicated to the study of infectious diseases of farm animals. It forms part of the UK government's Biotechnology and Biological ...

Ella Claridge Ella Caterina Claridge (born 28 September 2002) is an English cricketer who currently plays for Buckinghamshire Women cricket team, Buckinghamshire, Leicestershire Women cricket team, Leicestershire and The Blaze (women's cricket), The Blaze. Sh ...

Cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

References

External links

Official School WebsiteArticle on Maths CompetitionThe Guardian Award
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cedars Upper School Academies in Central Bedfordshire District Upper schools in Central Bedfordshire District Leighton Buzzard Educational institutions established in 1921 1921 establishments in England